DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
World Footbrake Challenge co-promoter Jared
Pennington saw a record turnout for his Fourth of July
festivities headlined by a trio of $10,000-to-win races
for the wheels-up footbrake crowd.
I think they get to race more at events like that
and they become better racers at races like that.
There’s just so many more runs and that gives
them that much more data to make decisions.
That’s a big benefit to them.
How important has it been to make adjustments,
whether it’s a double-divisional race
or something else, especially during a time
like this?
SW: People are open to change because you’re
trying. For a lot of people, racing is a hobby and
you’ll always hear people say racing is competitive
problem-solving. A lot of people that race
are entrepreneurs, so they’re used to taking risks
and trying to solve problems. That’s typically not
something you just turn off on the weekends, and
that’s why racing appeals to them. They want to
make things better and figure it out.
We ask them and we learn a lot. I’m not saying
every decision we’ve made is the right one, but
we ask and learn. We try to get a lot of input from
the racers. [In Columbus], people were happy
and they loved the event. They were making a
lot of runs. Everybody walked away happy and
that allows you to build on it and keep making
it better for the racer.
You’ve got to evolve with your customer’s needs,
especially during a time like this. As a company,
we’re able to look at different situations with different
hats because we are sponsors, we are racers
and we are race teams. So, you try to look at it from
each angle, trying to find the good for everybody.
KS: From a track standpoint, we’ve dealt with
more challenges than most. California was hit
so hard hit, it’s been hard to get anything accomplished,
to be honest. Three weeks before
we got word we could have an event, we were
told no spectators, but once they entered the
facility they had to wear a mask unless they
were in their motorhome.
At that time, it was just uncharted territory.
That said, with all the hurdles, to get 440 cars we
were very happy. We had lost the NASCAR race,
lost the NHRA national event, so we were ecstatic
with the support and participation we had.
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